Miami gave the Raptors everything they could handle on Tuesday night. The Heat refused to crumble when Toronto built a huge lead and brought the game right down to the wire, much to the chagrin of Dwane Casey and the players. The result left the Heat in the final playoff spot in the East (ahead of Wednesday’s game) and the Raptors remained in first, setting up a potential meeting in April to kick off the post-season.

It’s just as likely Toronto meets Philadelphia, Detroit or maybe even Indiana and all would probably be better matchups than these Heat.

“They can go extremely small and they are very athletic, quick and they play extremely hard,” said DeMar DeRozan after the game.

“With the combination of all those things, well coached as well. They showed it tonight and every time we play them they show it.”

That organization keeps its players in peak shape, Erik Spoelstra is a top 5 head coach and the chemistry is great. They are a handful.

“That’s a tough team, they’ve played a lot of close games and they are really good in the clutch so they were fighting back and we didn’t do a good enough job to keep them at bay,” said Fred VanVleet.

That’s another good point, Miami is used to playing tight games, whereas Toronto has been stomping on opponents and looked completely lost when an actual competitive match emerged. The fourth quarter was a gong show and they almost blew it.

Both of these teams are a fair bit better compared to when they met a couple of years ago in the second round of the playoffs. Miami is also an improved group compared to the one that fell just short of the post-season after a stirring run in 2016-17. Josh Richardson is healthy now and is a stud. Bam Adebayo also looks like a great building block. Goran Dragic is an all-star caliber point guard, Hassan Whiteside is a force in the middle and Wayne Ellington is an elite shooter. James Johnson remains a massive talent, Dwyane Wade brings his experience and championship pedigree and once Canadian Kelly Olynyk is back the team’s admirable depth will be improved that much more.

The Raptors would be favoured against the Heat, but Richardson, Johnson and Justise Winslow are some of the players best suited in the entire league to give Toronto’s top players fits. Lowry went off late in the previous series after Dragic outplayed him earlier. Depth doesn’t matter as much in the post-season, which hurts both of these clubs and Toronto has more top-end talent.

Moving forward, Miami isn’t in a great spot financially. Huge extensions for Tyler Johnson, Dion Waiters and even Olynyk were probably ill-advised and could cost the team Ellington and then Winslow moving forward.

But right now, this is not a fun team to play against.

The Miami players respect the Raptors and what they have accomplished so far, but there is zero fear.

“I think we play hard and we don’t care about matchups or the accolades other teams have,” Johnson said, via Sportsnet’s Michael Grange.

“And you have to understand that if you’re coming to play us. We’re going to play hard, keep the game in our wheelhouse and as best we can, make it on our terms.”

Dragic added that games between the two teams are always close and that, “no one want to play against us in a seven-game series.”

AROUND THE RIM

The Heat guards have the lob game down to a science, particularly when pairing with Whiteside or Adebayo. Wade has taken no time to reintegrate on that front.

James Johnson remains one of the most lethal finishers in the game. When he gets a head of stem it’s extremely difficult to stop him. Since he’s JJ, he also hoisted up so truly awful shots as well.

Not sure we’re talking quite enough about just how good Fred VanVleet has been for a while now. He was one of the best players on the floor, especially when the Raptors pulled away in the third quarter.

Can’t remember ever seeing DeRozan block a shot at one end and finish at the other. He swatted Whiteside and followed up a Pascal Siakam miss with a dunk.

That 13-0 Heat run late was one of the lowest sequences of the season for the Raptors and they were understandably disgusted by it afterward.